Speaking of Bill Clinton..

[SaxyAcoustician]

Does anyone have pictures or recordings of the historic Arsenio Hall appearance? Or any other recordings by the former president?

[SaxyAcoustician]

Absolutely no one has a recording of Bill Clinton playing the saxophone??

[RS]

As it should be.

[Hurling Frootmig]

I wouldn't go that far.

President's (and people running for President) have a long history of playing a musical instrument (about as well as a Politician can) for the public. Truman played the Piano and subjected people to Chopin (if I remember correctly), Nixon also played the piano. I've seen Condi Rice playing the piano quite a bit and while she's a better player than Nixon I'm pretty sure that her talent doesn't equate to some of the venues she has played.

I'm sure there's more bad playing from a host of politicians. Clinton just happened to play the same horn that we all enjoy.

[pepper]

i had a quick flick through his autobiography the other day, and sure enough he has pictures of his high school trio and of him playing tenor as a kid. tony blair also occasionly gets his guitar out to show he's 'down with the kids'.

somehow it's charasmatic with clinton, but with blair it just makes me want to repeatedably beat him round the back of the head with a stratocaster.

[Bill Mecca]

There is a CD floating around of Clinton playing in a club(?) in Eastern Europe I believe. Can't remember the title. Saxophone Journal used to have one listed "the President Blows" (probably been retitled ;D)

another one:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review.php?id=11863

[RS]

I'd rather listen to Alan Greenspan (chairman of the Fed).

[gary]

For more information on clinton's playing, check out this thread. It also has onfo on clinton's gig and recording in Prague. http://saxontheweb.myforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=2794&highlight=madelyn+albright

You might also be interested, SaxyAcoustician, that the thread I'm referring to above was started by you, yourself.

[SaxyAcoustician]

Yes, that thread was started by me but as you can see the thread strayed from the topic and I guess got overly political, eventually having to have some of the posts removed by the moderators. Only one person pointed me (along with others interested) to what it is that was asked for: a recording of Clinton's playing. But that was a foreign eBay auction and I didn't see that post until recently, almost a year later; the auction listing's long been taken off the eBay server. Which is why I started this new thread. Hopefully someone can come through for me (us).

I wish people would stop bashing Clinton as a sax player. He's not a professional musician but people expect him to sound like one. He never claimed to be a jazz master yet people expect him to burn like a seasoned NYC cat. The guy simply enjoys playing the sax. If anything, we should respect him for having the balls to play on national television. Very few of us with his skills would even THINK about doing such a thing. Besides, he's the reason why the saxophone became as popular as it had during and since his presidency. And, it's almost certain that there has not been another president that actually appreciates jazz much less understand the art form.

[gary]

"Two Presidents' Jam Session" from the Reduta Jazz Club, Praha 94.
Cesky Rozhlas CR 0001-2-531.

[SaxyAcoustician]

Thank you, gary. :)

I just placed an order for that CD at MusicaBona (looks like a European site). It cost $16.90 with free shipping to the States.

Thanks again. (Finally!)

[RS]

I saw a clip on TV not long ago of Clinton playing. He sounded alright. But he ain't gonna make anyone forget Ace Cannon.

[gary]

Hey SaxyAcoustician -
maybe you'd better wait until after you've heard it before you thank me. :mrgreen:

[Gandalfe]

The MusicaBona site is very interesting and mostly dedicated to artists I haven't heard of, Europe-based I'm guessing. Thanks for the pointer.

[garyinla]

Bill Clinton's Buescher Aristocrat student-level alto sax is in the Hard Rock Cafe in Universal City Walk, Universal City, Califronia.

It is a post Selmer buyout student Aristocrat model and it looks relaqoured, but they did not re-nickel plate the keys. It has a Brilhart Ebolin mouthpice that has the lettering all faded and there is no ligature or reed.

The sax has hsi signature on it in Magic Marker.

While there, dont miss the chandelier hanging over the entrance that has about 30 saxes, altos and tenors, but fortunately they seem to be all the same student level horn model (I did not reognize which one), nothing good.

[T.S.]

Just a side note about Mr. Clinton. I was a at music shop a few years ago and ran into a player who'd played a party that Clinton was at during his Presidency, and the President came up to him and asked him about this player's Mark VI...and what year it was....the player replied and Mr. Clinton rattled off that it's got to be between these serial numbers....To this player's surprise, Mr. Clinton was right on...and proved to obviously be a real sax aficianado...Who knew?

[saxmasta89]

Oh no...i'm gonna have a horrible nightmare tonight :shock:

[T.S.]

Heh heh....

Stranger than fiction.....